


Cigarettes

by bostonbarfight



Category: Duran Duran
Genre: Gen, Smoking, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-29 01:31:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13916502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bostonbarfight/pseuds/bostonbarfight
Summary: Two men smoking on a hotel roof.





	Cigarettes

"Smoking's a bad habit, John." I heard him say, slow and sweet like molasses. The voice echoed through the dark from behind me. I heard the door to the roof close with a soft metallic click.

I felt a hand rest on my shoulder. 

"If smoking's so bad for you, why haven't you quit yet?" I retorted. I stubbed my cigarette out on the concrete ledge that I leant on. A soft chuckle emanated from his mouth, along with a curl of wispy smoke. It floated past me on the breeze, twisting and dissipating into the crisp night air around us.

I could feel his presence hover close around my back. In a soft whisper he spoke:

"Because I'm a risk taker. A hedonist. An ostentatious prick. I like the way it feels. The taste, the smell, the feel of it rolling between my fingers."

I turned to discover he was merely inches from my face. He leaned past me to stub his own cigarette out on the ledge. He deftly swiped another from the box in his coat pocket and placed it between his lips, smirking all the while.

"Gotta light?" He drawled in that slow brummy accent of his. I rolled my eyes and produced a lighter from my pocket, holding the flame to the fag in his mouth. Our eyes met, his glimmering of reflections of the flame. Time seemed to slow down whenever those emerald eyes looked into mine. Moments like those felt infinite and serene. Despite this, it would always end, every time. 

"Nick..." I managed to say. His eyes flickered back to mine and I was pulled under once again. One of his eyebrows raised inquisitively, in anticipation of what I may say.

As always, I could never make myself finish the sentence.

So we stood, facing the skyline, stars above our heads, sucking back smoke like our lives depended on it. We had spent many a night like this. They had all ended the same way, too.

A shiver ran through me. The air was fresh and chilled me to the bone. I pulled my coat tighter around myself and tapped the ashes off the end of my cigarette.

"Is this going to become a habit, John? Silently smoking on hotel roofs?"

"That almost sounds like a strange song name, or lyric perhaps." I mumbled. Silence ensued after my words as Nick mulled over what to say next.

"I'm gonna quit someday, you know. I really should've earlier, but all this fame, this success, this money. It's gotten in the way. I shouldn't be smoking, not this much, and certainly not now I've got Tatjana."

The mood always turned solemn when he mentioned family. I managed a small smile, nodding sagely.

"If you quit, I'll quit." I offered. Nick laughed.

"If that's what you want." He said, turning to face me. He took the cigarette from between my fingers and tossed it off the side of the building to smoulder on the pavement below. He repeated the same thing with his own.

Nick gave me a wide smile before turning on his heel and walking away. The door closed with a soft metallic click. 

Another door closed too.

Nick just doesn't know that he's slammed it in my face.


End file.
